Islamabad: Two Indian Parsi doctors based in Bombay (now Mumbai) are set to receive Pakistan's highest civilian award for keeping Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah's terminal illness diagnosis a secret during the crucial period before Partition in 1947. Islamabad has nominated physician Dr Jal Ratanji Patel and radiologist Dr Jal Dhaybho-Koo for the Nishan-e-Imtiaz award for their "quiet but extraordinary service" in ensuring that knowledge of Jinnah's terminal illness remained limited to just the members of his inner circle, announced Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives and head of the Awards Committee.
In a post on X, Ahsan Iqbal noted that Dr Patel and Dr Dhaybho-Koo had examined Jinnah's X-ray in 1946 and concluded that his tuberculosis had reached an advanced stage and he had only a year or two to live. But they maintained professional confidentiality about the seriousness of his illness -- a secret that many historians believed could have altered the timing of partition and the creation of Pakistan.
“I feel honoured to have the privilege, as Chairman of the Awards Committee, of nominating for the Nishan-e-Imtiaz two remarkable doctors, a physician and a radiologist, both members of Bombay's Parsi community, who faithfully guarded the secret of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah's terminal illness," Iqbal wrote.
"By maintaining absolute professional confidentiality at such a critical moment, these doctors performed a quiet but extraordinary service. Their fidelity to their professional oath inadvertently became a significant contribution to the circumstances that made the creation of Pakistan possible," he added.
Pakistan's honour for Dr Patel and Dr Dhaybho-Koo comes 78 years after Jinnah's death and will be formally conferred on them posthumously at a ceremony in March 2027.
According to the Pakistani minister, Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of British India, later acknowledged that if he had known the extent of Jinnah's illness, he might have delayed Partition, potentially altering the course of history.
By not disclosing Jinnah’s medical condition, the two doctors rendered "quiet but extraordinary service" at a decisive moment, he added.
In his book 'Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin', historian and academic Akbar Ahmed notes that Jinnah had been suffering from tuberculosis since the 1930s -- a fact only known to a few close confidants, including his sister Fatima Jinnah.
Tuberculosis was a highly lethal disease at the time, with no effective antibiotic treatment. Jinnah reportedly kept the severity of his condition from the public due to concerns that it could undermine his political image and leadership.
By the time of India’s partition in 1947, Jinnah’s health had significantly worsened. He died of pulmonary tuberculosis on September 11, 1948, just over a year after partition.
